Peter Andraschke

Gustav Mahlers Der Abschied

Semantische Überlegungen

The last three symphonic works of Gustav Mahler—Das Lied von der Erde, Symphony No. 9, and the unfinished Tenth—constitute a conceptual and musical unity. They document Mahler’s wrestling with the topic of death, which presented itself in the summer of 1907 after he was diagnosed with advanced heart disease. Mahler did not live to hear their first performances. In “Der Abschied,” the last movement of Das Lied von der Erde, the theme of life’s final exit coalesces with reminiscence, as evidenced in passages Mahler substituted and added to Hans Bethge’s text, in quotations from earlier compositions, and in written commentary that accompanied the compositional process. It is also confirmed by the musical structure itself.

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